How to Deal With Your Kid’s Teacher

This is such a touchy topic for me.

Lately, as I’ve been reading the school section of my local moms’ message board, I sit at my computer clenching and unclenching my fists, pursing my lips, narrowing my eyes, and basically turning purple, trying to not respond to some of these parents’ complaints about their kids’ teachers.

Now, I know it’s different when it’s your child, and it’s certainly different when it’s my child.

But, I’ve been hearing a lot of smack talk about teachers lately and as a former teacher, I’d like to say a few things in response.

So, here goes: How best to approach your child’s teacher when you have an issue with what is going on in the classroom.

I do want to say that I realize that there are some sucky, mean, nasty teachers who should find a different profession, but I do think that these are far fewer in number than parents seem to think there are. But, here, we’re just talking about your run-of-the-mill, first-offense type of teacher. Not big, huge issues, but we’re talking the small stuff here.

Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I’m not talking about MAJOR issues: like your child says that a teacher touched him/her inappropriately whether in an abusive/sexual manner. Or if you have had repeated problems with the teacher. Or if they write “you are an idiot!” on your child’s papers. By all means, go in, guns blazing, with your posse, pull your child out of the class, etc.

This advice is meant for first time and/or minor “offenses.”

First of all, if you have an issue with the teacher, CHECK YOUR FACTS.

I had a mom come in once, screaming at me that it was totally unfair of me to assign a 5 paragraph essay to her daughter to do in one night, especially since she had a math test in another class on the same day.

Flabbergasted, I turned to her daughter, who was pretty much cowering in the corner and asked her if she could please tell her mother how long we’d been working on that assignment(for a MONTH- IN class, and the only kids who had it for homework were those who had not yet managed to complete their final drafts in class). Not wanting to get in trouble, daughter had told mom that I had assigned it yesterday.

Way to look like a crazy mom. By all means, question the assignment, but do it in a calm manner.

In fact, STAY CALM! is pretty much the most important rule here.

I know you’re upset about whatever is going on, but it’s never a good idea to come in yelling and screaming. You might end up not being allowed into that teacher’s classroom again without an escort from the principal’s office(crazy mom of one of my former students, who actually slapped a TA, she was so pissed off).

If you think that the teacher picks on your child, do not go in and accuse the teacher of this.

Go in and ask about the specific incidents that your child is talking about. What did your child do to get silent lunch or their recess taken away or whatever punishment they got. And then ask what the teacher thinks can be done so that that behavior doesn’t continue to occur. And ask to be informed whenever it happens, stating that it’s easier for you to do something about behavior if you know about it sooner, rather than only being informed after something has happened for the tenth time.

Instead of complaining about punishments that your child receives, make your own suggestions as to a solution.

Much as I HATED them, I did have to use silent lunch(blech- I usually switched this up and had it be child had to sit near me at lunch instead- they need to get talking out somehow!) and take away some recess time. WHY? Because there’s not a whole lot left that teachers can do.

There are various behavior charts/systems that can be used and positive reinforcement, but outside of that, there’s not a whole lot left.

So, instead of complaining about how much you hate silent lunch(or whatever the punishment is): can you think of a better one? And let the teacher know?

Not everything is the teacher’s fault. This one is in specific reference to a mom who has been complaining that her child’s new teacher is horrible and her child has never had problems before, blah, blah. Really? It must be the teacher and couldn’t possibly be that the child just had to move cross-country, leave all his friends, and his daddy just got deployed for a year, could it? No, those things couldn’t possibly be affecting the child and making him act up in school. Must be an awful teacher.

If you are upset about what you perceive to be a grading error, just ask. You don’t have to come in waving the paper in question in the teacher’s face. Teachers make mistakes and will feel really bad about it and fix it. This is why, whenever I would be doing grades for report cards, if a student was super close to making the next grade, I usually just gave it to them, knowing I could have messed up somewhere along the line.

At the first conference, DO NOT bring in others. If you’ve never met with the teacher before, insisting that the principal, guidance counselor, education advocate, etc., be there with you. This is going to put the teacher on the defensive and might not even prove necessary. Give the teacher a chance first.

If you were at work, and someone had a question about something you did, wouldn’t you rather that they came to you about it first, instead of bringing your boss in right away?

If you do not like the way that the conference goes, THEN bring in the principal or whoever else you feel needs to be there.

In fact, always make sure you talk to the teacher about something first.

Asking your neighbors, parents of other students, the people in your moms group, etc., will probably do nothing but fire you up(since they’ll probably side with you, even if they don’t really agree with you) and then you break the most important rule of BE CALM.

Do not “threaten” and say that you are going to have your child moved to another classroom or that you are going to homeschool.

If the teacher is anything like me, she will politely say, “You are welcome to explore your options and if that is what you choose, you can pursue that.”

When what she will be thinking is “Let so-and-so across the hall deal with your madness. And if you homeschool, good luck, since you’re obviously an idiot.” And she’ll laugh.

Those are real options for you, but really, don’t ever think it’s a threat.

I could go on and on with these. But, I’ll leave you with one last suggestion:

if you are hearing things about a teacher that you do not like about the way the classroom is run, ask if you can come in and observe. Do not say that it’s because you want to take notes on what the teacher is doing. Say that it is because you’d like to be able to see how the class runs so that you can better help your child to be able to learn in that environment. That you’ll be able to help reinforce rules and procedures if you see them in action. Yes, that teacher might then be on “best behavior” when you are there. But, if you watch the kids, you’ll be able to see whether or not the teacher is being herself or totally different.

And, if you volunteer to help in your child’s class every once in awhile, you’ll really get to know what goes on.

Comments

Another piece of advice…don't badmouth your teacher in front of your kids, especially at the elementary level. They have to spend the whole day with their teacher, and badmouthing their teacher doesn't help your child have a positive relationship with their teacher. It just makes things worse!

great advice! as a former teacher myself, it's sometimes really hard to keep quiet about what my kid's teacher is doing in the classroom. but, we've been really blessed and have had two fantastic teachers so far, two very different teachers, but each fantastic in her own way!

Reading this and re-reading my post about my daughter's teacher made me realize I made her out to be worse than she really is. I may not like how she does certain things, but almost all of the class likes her. I wish I could show this to the other parents who take everything this teacher does personal because they think she's picking on their child.

It's not fun to be on the receiving end of a parent on a tirade. A lot of times if the parent would step back and look at the whole situation, they would realize there's a better way to handle things.

Great advice and spoken like someone who obviously has been on the other side of the fence before! I taught for several years before I had my two and I second everything you just said. I remember this advice also when dealing with my own children's teachers year after year. This advice will get you a long way year after year with the teachers.

Awesome! As a former teacher myself (one who was attacked, physically, by a parent) I greatly appreciate anyone who is willing to share some much needed advice w/parents. She's lucky I didn't have my shank on me at the time!

I am so glad that I read this before my son starts kindergarden, because I can totally see myself as the crazy chick who runs into the school and yells at the teacher. I will take your advice to heart for sure!

I am so new to this whole school thing… my daughter is only in pre-K and will be in this same school for K. And we are totally spoiled by this small, private school.

But you know what? I think my kids having been in daycare has helped prepare me. Because my daycare provider is a partner in raising my children.

Teachers are partners in educating and raising my children.

Partners. As in- working together.

I wouldn't say I'm "friends" with the teachers at her school. But I like them and I respect them and I am very friendly with them. I utilize all the given ways of communication- phone calls, e-mails, chatting at drop off and pick up.

Teachers are human. I can't see treating teachers any differently than I would my neighbor, people I go to church with, people I shop with… People are people and while I totally can go all "mama bear" and will when needed… it doesn't solve problems or set a good example or create a trusting and respectful relationship…

I subbed for the 4th grade once the last month of school while the teacher went on maternity leave. It was for a private Christian school that my husband was teaching at. There was this one girl, Mary, who had a mother who was also teaching at the school.

Mary was constant problems. She would talk, draw, etc. while the class was supposed to be working. Once when I caught her drawing instead of working I had her write lines that said "Drawing is a misuse of my time."

The next day, Mary's mother met me in the parking lot the second I got out of my car and screamed at me "Why did you say Mary was wasting her time at drawing? She's an excellent drawer and you have no right to say that!"

I looked at Mary, who at this point was hiding behind her mother and I said, Mary, do you want to tell your mother what the lines read?

Needless to say, I got a fat apology by the mother. And I never taught again.

I was a preschool teacher. It was hard at times to face those parents who are so upset but it can get easier at times. Thanks for your help I know I will use it for sure. Love the new look of your blog.

How about, "Contrary to what you believe as a parent, your child is not the angel from above that you think he/she is". I detest the "my child can do no wrong" mentality of today's parents.

I would hug a teacher for giving my kid a failing grade…..literally. I've had kids in the public school system (3 different kids) and have yet to see a big fat "F". It's not because my kids are the next Doogie Howser, either.

I loved this post. It was timely, too. Report cards came home yesterday (We have an elementary gym teacher that I'm not too fond of … not that I've had to intervene yet, I just have some suspicions). I always wonder what it's like for teachers dealing with parents and I love to hear about the other side of the desk. Like HCP's … I don't doubt they have stories that would curl your hair. Some of the parents in our sub don't even know how to play nice as ~neighbors~ … I can only imagine how they treat teachers.

Thanks for all the advice! I can relate to many of these points as a teacher turned SAHM as well. Though none of my boys are in school yet, I know I am going to have a very difficult time if they ever have a teacher that they don't like. To the extent that they dread going to school and come home in tears.

I myself am not a teacher, but my father was a teacher prior to becoming a principal so he saw both ends of the dicipline/crazy parent load.

I appreciate that you stated things in a 'these people are human too' way. Yep we all make mistakes, no we don't want our boss in on all the meetings, and while we may be horrified by the possibility of you taking your child to home school on your own poor judgment and etiquette, its off our plate. Totally agree.

You'll get more bees with honey than vinegar,,, but on the major stuff.. you need both:)

My sister is a third grade teacher and always has these types of "crazy" moms. This is one of the reasons why I did not want to become a teacher. Parents now a days don't want to see their little gems for what they are, and always tend to blame other than themselves for the horrible behavior of their children.

AMEN! I taught for years and I am sooooo careful when approaching my kids' teachers. I assume my kid is twisting up the facts, right off the bat, which helps me to "get the whole story" before I blow a gasket. You've given awesome advice that all parents should hear. Especially the one who slapped the TA. Oh, the times I wanted to do that to a parent!

I agree with you 100%! I never believe my child first until I am sure I've gotten all sides of the story. Even though my kids are really good kids, they are human and they don't like to present ALL the facts…especially when the facts don't make them look 100% positive. I spend a lot of time volunteering in their classes and have gotten to know all their teachers on a personal level. I have never felt like I couldn't go to them to resolve an issue. Most teachers are reasonable people. If you go to them with respect and facts, they'll respond.

I feel like all too often, the parents that go in, guns blazing and threatening are the same parents who have absolutely no idea who their child is.

I have many friends whose parents are BLIND to their child's behavior. For whatever reason, their parents refuse to believe their child would EVER do anything wrong, therefore it must be the teacher's fault.

9/10, this was bullshit. And the other 1/10, I couldn't say I blamed the teacher anyway.

As a high school English teacher, I'd like to thank you for this post! Contrary to popular belief, the majority of us are not plotting the demise of one's child when we go home every night; if anything, we are trying to FORGET about said child! 🙂

I could never evah be a teacher. Nope. I know the horrors they have to go through. And I know a child's behavior isn't going to change when they have a parent that believes everything they say, and faults everyone but their child.

Bravo! I wouldn't go into a public school classroom without a whip and a chair. Teachers are under-paid and under-appreciated.

It is amazing how much it means to teachers for parents to say "Thank you for everything you do." Just doing simple things like that (without being over-the-top or seeming like you have an agenda) can really brighten a teacher's day. Many times all they hear from parent's are complaints.

Great advice! And couldn't have come at a better time for me. Hubs and I just had an impromptu meeting with the principal at my 6th graders school. He keeps getting picked on (which we KNOW is part of growing up), but when it becomes that all of our hard work of parenting is being undermined… it becomes a problem. I was ready to take him out and start homeschooling (We haven't still quite decided if we'll go that route).

Anyhow, it didn't have anything to do with a teacher, BUT there is this one of his that her rules just bug the crap outta me. (I just erased a whole bunch because I didn't want to write a blog in your blog comment section! : ).

Very well said! I used to work for our school district as a child development supervisor and I had plenty of parents come in with half the story and make themselves look like a fool. I have no idea why they would get so worked up without finding out the details!

It drives me nuts when parents freak out if a teacher dares to say that their little angel isn't perfect. When teachers come to me with advice on how I can help my son improve, I take it happily and thank them for it.

This is great advice! I especially like the part about suggesting a punishment if we don't agree with the teacher's chosen one. It's like don't just complain about stuff, have a solution too. Thanks for the advice!

Super advice! My husband is a high school teacher. You would think that these kinds of issues with parents would get better after elementary school. No. You should just hear some of the things parents say when they find out their child isn't going to graduate. Even when they find out it was because he skipped class 41 times, they still try to make it the teacher's fault! Amazing.

Hubs is a teacher…in the same shitty district as I. The administration in nearly every building is a farce…that being said he had a parent barge into his classroom and start accusing him of all kinds of terrbile behavior toward her son (who is well known for HIS terrible behavior…hhmmm…wonder where he gets it). After requesting they move to the hall the mother ended the monologue -because hubs didn't get much in edgewise – by telling hubs that under no circumstance was he to ever correct, speak to or discipline her son while in his classroom.

Best thing I've ever heard coming from a teacher! On the other end though, I feel like teachers too find reason to make a big deal out of things and want to talk to the parents, just as much as the parents do to the teachers. =/

Love it girlie! I love Cole's school and the wonderful teachers that care for them and are always trying their best to give him the support he needs! He's a very hyper little boy and I appreciate them very much for all their wonderful ideas on to help me and him.

A good idea with the chart at home, I'll have to find one and put it up!

That's really good information!! I'm just now venturing into this area now that my 5-yr old twins are in kindergarten. I've had 2 parent-teacher conferences this year with the teacher which were part of the regular program. I felt like I got to know her better personally through the conferences, since she always seems so busy when I drop/pick-up the kids.

In my education career, I have had TWO teachers that I felt would've been better suited to another profession. I mean, no matter what country I was in, no matter what grade, only two teachers made me stabby.

I blame some overreacting parents with too much time on their hands and some manipulative children.

That's an awesome post and I wish parents around me would read it. I am always for an open relationship with my kids teachers. I like to keep in touch. I never take my kids words and I don't march to school like a mad woman threatening and screaming.One thing I learn…children do lie and blow things out of proportion.

Bravo! I especially appreciate the parents who start off a conversation or email with, "I'm sure I only have part of the story…" and then wait to hear what I say before they jump off the deep end. My husband says he's not sure whether I should come to parent-teacher conferences when SP starts school, but I told him that I've been on the other side of the desk enough to know how to be polite and try to partner with the teacher, no matter how I might think of him or her based on being a teacher myself.

I wonder what schools these parents and kids belong to? Getting a kid moved to another class takes an act of congress and something that can lead to a court trial before we can get our kids reassigned. (I know, because my son had 38 days in a row with a wetting accident. It just happened the school board attorney was in that meeting. Next day my son was moved and never cried about going to school and never had another wetting accident that year.)

Thankfully I totally love my children's teacher. Seriously. She is amazingly fair, patient, and have I mentioned brilliant? The woman shines in her lesson planning…never a problem with my children's teacher….

Oh, you already know they are homeschooled? Um, Okay. I was just kidding.

How about I tell you what horrible thing my parents did to my 4th grade teacher to make her hate me all the more? She wrote a whiney note home to my folks complaining about me and my dad took a red pen and circled all her spelling and grammatical errors. Then said, "Perhaps my daughter would be a better student if she had a better teacher." Then I delivered the note with a smirk on my face.

I love this. You always have such sound practical advice!!!! I basically did that post to participate in an alphabet Thursday….it was off the top of my head. I love the way you insert humor into your posts. I am still at school and just don't have the creative juices flowing….sigh.

My daughter is only in daycare, but I am dealing with a situation now where I am trying to communicate with the teacher and the daycare director. I'm using a lot of different techniques…talking about what's working, offering to help, staying calm and not judging, but I'm not getting anywhere. I didn't threaten to take her out, but I am taking her out! Your advice is right on point, though. When the parent does what they are supposed to do and they get a terrible response, then you know for sure you need to explore other options for your child!

Your advice sounds great. We have a teacher who has been picking on my daughter for a year and a half. There is no other school in the community so it isn’t like she can switch schools easily. He consistently picks on her. Once I asked another student what is with this guy? She said oh he generally choses a child to pick on and the rest of us are quite happy if it isn’t us. He does this all the time. And everybody hates him. She said… he picks on XXXXXX every day for something or other. While I do believe this can be a great learning experience for my child I have also noticed that he consistently forgets to grade some of her papers so that when report cards are generated she gets a D. Then magically after the report cards the marks get entered into the system. We are accustomed now to seeing a D in his classes while the rest of her marks are A and A+ and the occaisional B. And we chaulk it up to Mr… L. He kicked her out of gym class consistently for not bringing the right runners. The other kids had similar runners to hers but she was the one kicked out. So I made it my business to get her the right runners. He threatened me on the phone once saying she has a bad attitude. His attitude on the phone was terrible. I sat in the gym one day after he threatened to kick her twosome team out of the badminton tournament due to her shirt being inappropriate about two feet from him and he basically ignored me the entire time. I went to the secretary and bought an XL school tee shirt and said now she can’t say she doesn’t have a shirt that doesn’t fit her. I am careful now of the shorts I buy for her for school as they had a meeting about the length of shorts. One of the kids told my daughter and I both to just kiss his behind as much as possible to try to get him to like you so he will pick another target. Unfortunately she has four more years with this gentleman. Any time he can mark her subjectively he lowers her grade level. I keep telling her to just kiss his behind and try to be so good in his class that he can’t find fault and take no attitude with you. I will be speaking to a lawyer about what other options I may have should things get worse. I have money and I am not afraid to spend it to take him down. I am in documentation phase as well.

As a kindergarten teacher and a parent of two grown daughters, I can appreciate the parent/teacher relationship from both sides of the fence. I find that sometimes a parent just wants to be listened to and our conversations often center around “I get that; I’m a mom too.”

I wish I could loop with my class every single year because building a strong home/school connection with each familiy is so crucial to a successful year.
I also believe that reaching out to each family before the school year even begins, often helps to nurture that connection.

I mostly agree with the comments made on this blog, i think any parent that has any concern needs to address it in a calm mature manner, however my son has had the worst experiences with not one but two teachers since pre-school and is now in 1st grade. He is a very active child possibly adhd, but also a very bright little boy that is very eager to learn. In pre-school he complained about school everyday after the first few weeks of school. I really thought the “new” had worn off and that it was more of a separation issue since i had been a stay at home mom with him since he was born. i did talk to his teacher every day when he was picked up and dropped off and expressed my concerns with the way he kept coming home telling me he didnt want to go back. She told me that he was doing really well and that i shouldnt be concerned it was normal for young children to have some anxieties about starting school. After he went to this pre-school for 2 months he still cried when i left him and couldnt get out he door fast enough when i picked him up that i started asking other staff about what was going on and why was my child hating school so much. I was then told how they routinely had to hold him down to his nap cot and was told if he didn’t sit still and quit moving around during class or nap time that he would be denied snack time or have to start spending nap time in the bathroom floor. i was livid in the least and immediately pulled my son from pre-school. As you can imagine he was pretty traumatized by this so when we started regular public school for kindegarden he almost refused to go. His K teacher was wonderful with him and gave me daily reports on how well he was doing or if he got in trouble that day why, what coarse of action was taken, and how we could help at home to avoid the behavior in the future.(usually him talking in class due to boredom.) Now we are in first grade and he comes home telling me how his teacher hates him and picks on him. So i go in and ask her how my son is doing in 1st grade. She tells me that he is doing great but we could do more at home to help with his reading and that she would start sending him to a special ed teacher to help him at school as well. I tell her im a little confused since he was ahead of the game last year and his teacher had given him 1st grade work to keep him busy when she had to help the other students. She basically tells me well he is behind now so work with him. I already work with him every night but im like ok maybe im not doing something wrong. So i change my strategy at home and we continue on. By this point my son all but begs me to never send him to school again and his grades look terrible. For example: his very first spelling test he gets a D- on. He spelled every single word correctly but his c’s went above the lower case line a little bit on the page so the words get counted as incorrect. about 6 weeks in to school, when i go to pick up my son he is holding a paper in his hand and as im asking him what he has there he rips it in half and throws it in the grass. I tell him he needs to go pick it up and start to ask him why he would do that, when his teacher walks by marches up to him, interupts me and proceeds to yell at my son (loudly) that he needs to go pick that up right now and if he would do it in class like everybody else he wouldnt have to take it home. then grabs his face and says ” look at me when im talking to you! im sick and tired of you being disrespectful and i will not tolerate it. You will still be expected to hang that paper in the hallway for everyone to see and since you have ripped it its going to look pretty pathetic out there.” i look at her mad enough to commit assault and say i think we need to talk tomorrow and leave. the next day i calm down a little and go in and talk to her. She completely denies yelling at him at all and proceeds to tell me how he never listens and is always trying to defy her. She tells me how he always distracted by everything around him and never does his work when he is suppose to so he often has to stay in at recess to get it done. i explain to her the situation that happened in pre-school and that yelling at him will get her no where. i explained to her that i would talk to him at home to try and improve his behavior at school and that maybe if we tried the approach of awarding his positive behavior at school he would want to do better. After being in first grade for 3 months one night we are doing my sons homework and i ask him how school went, who he played with at recess, what was the funnest part of his day etc… he looks at me right in the eyes and says “nothing was fun, i hate school, the best part is always recess and most of the time i get it taken away because my teacher hates me. i want to kill myself so i never have to go to school again. i try so hard to be still, and be quiet and do my work but its never good enough.” i think that is the most heartbreaking moment of my life. He is 6 years old and doesnt want to live any more. The next day i call and have a meeting with the principal, his teacher, and the school councilor. They all tell me how great my kid is and that they think he is harder on himself than any of us could be. They tell me how seriously they are taking this situation, but pretty much brush it off as my son being a perfectionist. I also call a child psychiatrist to address my 6 year old’s suicidal thoughts. The first thing the psychiatrist asks me is if there are any other school options for my son. unfortunately no. there is only one school in our entire county k-6 and one school for 7-12. We try and work something out with the school and the principal assures me she will watch him and his class room closely. things do get better for about 2 months and now we are back to the same…. my son cries everyday about going to school and how he gets in trouble for not having his feet under his desk etc…now everytime i talk to his teacher its always something negative and i try to talk to her daily but she now brushes me off. Last week he forgot his homework 2 days in a row. I thought that odd since he has never forgotten it before. Both days we go back in the school but the second day he begs me to just let him get it by himself and that i dont need to go to his room. i go to his room because now im really worried about what could be going on. She makes a few snide comments to my son so i tell her that i have talked to him we have found a solution and it wont be a problem in the future. the next day my son remembers his homework. As he walks up to me he has a huge smile on his face and says ” guess what mom i remembered my homework. ” His teachers is standing next to us, looks at us rolls her eyes and walks off with a huff. Seriously!!!?? We are now in the process of starting to homeschool. I did calmly talk to his teachers with my concerns, i went through the chain of command, we have and extremely stable house hold(no alcohol or drugs, we are more financially stable than most, no deaths in the family and my husband and i have been married for 14 years.) I volunteer at the school often and have for many years as i have an older daughter that attends also. now when i volunteer they just make an excuse like oh dont worry about it we have it covered. i have requested that my son be tested for adhd or see if maybe he is a gifted child and is not challenged enough to keep him out of trouble or even a combination of both. the school refused. i have requested that my son be moved to a different classroom suggesting that it may be a personality clash between the teacher and my son. the school refused. i have been worried sick about the deteriorating state of my sons self esteem and mental health due to their lack of willingness to work with me. ive heard on a daily basis, thats against policy, or he isnt the only student we have. the point to my story is that its not always the child either, that every time your child comes home with the same complaint you should investigate the situation. I would never suggest any one assault a teacher or go in screaming a playing the blame game. I do feel like my son has been bullied by not one but 2 teachers in his first 3 years of school and i think it is becoming a problem. With teachers being under paid, over worked and under appreciated for so long that many teachers are burnt out. Im not saying that all teachers are like this but if your child came home from school crying from another child bullying them you tell them to talk to their teacher or you call that kids parents, but what do you do if its the teacher that is bullying your child and the principal tells me what i want to hear and does nothing after i walk out the door??

When my daughter was 6, she started wetting the bed again because of the bullying from her teacher. In one instance, the teacher said anyone who got their name on the board could not go to the Christmas party. EVERY child got their name on the board, but my child was the only one not allowed to go because the teacher said she was the worst. I was the room mother, stayed up all night making cupcakes and treat bags. She walked up to the teacher, tears streaming down her face, and gave the teacher her Christmas present and then left the party.
At the end of the year when I asked the teacher if she would like to go out to the playground and try to pick on someone her own size, she apologized and said that the stress of just getting married with all the changes was hard on her.
My mistake was in waiting too long to confront her. When my daughter was in third grade, the class was learning how to tell time. She got every answer correct on a test, but received a zero. Why? Because she had drawn arrows on the clock hands and the teacher said she had not told the class to do that. This teacher told me to put my daughter on Ritalin because she was hyperactive, a common cure for a teacher who doesn’t know how to control a class. She was tested and found not to be hyperactive, the psychologist said to change teachers. There are plenty of crappy teachers, in our experience, more bad than good.

I think it is time that you should change profession if you haven’t already! I don’t think “silent lunch” is appropriate! This kind of punishment will only get you fired and get the smart and rich parents sue the school board later! If I were the principal, I wouldn’t want you to stay in my school! Parents do know and share news about crazy teachers. At the end, not only your job will be in jeopardy, the principal’s job will be at risk too. If it is were a private school, the school will probably be closed very soon.

Gosh, I guess I didn’t realize how hard it has gotten to be for teachers when they can’t spank the kids, etc. to keep order in the classroom. I am so glad we homeschool, because all this behavior management must cut into the teaching time, as well as make for a lot of stress for everyone. Good luck and I hope things improve in some of these situations.

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Welcome to Things I Can't Say: Tips and Tales from an Introverted Mom. I'm Shell. Boy mom, beach girl, bookworm, ball games, baker, brand ambassador, Thinking yoga, food, and travel should start with "b," too. Finding the easiest way to do some things while overthinking so many others. Read More…